What is an IP address | How to find IP address

What is an IP address?

IP Address stands for Internet Protocol Address and is a label assigned to each device participating in a computer network. To establish a connection between computers, this key is used for identification.

Types of IP Addresses

Classification criterion -11. Static IP – This type of IP address doesn’t change with time. These generally have to be bought from ISPs(Internet Service Providers).

To find you Private IP Address,

2. On Linux/Mac
Open Terminal (You can find it in Applications → Utilities → Terminal in Mac and press Ctrl+ Alt + T to open it in Linux)
Type ‘ifconfig |grep inet’ and press Enter.
The inet addr is your Private IP address.
Your IP address provides a path for a hacker to enter into you computer. To change your IP address, IP address spoofing is done which would be explained in my next post.
To end with, let’s consider a few points:

1. Two computers present in a university with a proxy server can never have the same Private IP address but have the same Public IP Address.

2. Two computers connected to different networks can have the same Private IP address but would definitely have different Public IP addresses.

The following site contains a list of IP addresses range of different ISPs in different countries –
http://www.nirsoft.net/countryip/
Note – Sometimes the location shown in the sites mentioned may be inaccurate because they show the location of the tower from which your ISP is sending you the signal. But the country shown would always be correct unless IP Address Spoofing hasn’t been done.